Weekly Reminders 8/24/09

Dear Room 20 & 21 parents and students,

First of all, welcome to the very first edition of our Weekly Reminders! This is our primary method in our two classrooms of keeping you informed of curricular and other important topics during the upcoming week. Reminders will be sent out each Monday night, and you can access them most easily by visiting the classroom blogsites; we have an easy to see (and use!) link on our blogsite page. Our blogsite addresses are:

Room 20 (Scourkes) http://rockhopperroom20.blogspot.com
Room 21 (Roels) http://gtfroom22.blogspot.com

The year is off to a very good start for all of us. If you are a new parent to the Rockhopper Village, we're sure you're noticing that your student has more to keep track of for their school day. We encourage you to check in daily with your child about their school day, their assignments, and anything parents may be required or needed to do. For those returning families, we welcome you back, and we look forward to an exciting and productive year with your children.

Portal News and Community Updates:

Survey About Walking and Biking to School

Your child will bring home a survey by SafeRoutes.org on how you get to school each day. We’re part of a national grant through the City of San Jose, www.saferoutesinfo.org. Here's what Safe Routes to School is all about: “Safe Routes to School programs enable community leaders, schools and parents across the United States to improve safety and encourage more children to safely walk and bicycle to school. In the process, programs are working to reduce traffic congestion and improve health and the environment, making communities more livable for everyone.”

Although it’s true that most of us drive -- we are a “commuter school” -- this program will help us look at good alternatives and provide better signage and other amenities. A good idea: Carpooling. If you indicated you were interested in carpooling, you should have received a carpooling list already. If not please, let us know in the office and we will send your information to our carpooling list coordinator.

Please complete this survey, one per household, and return this to your classroom teacher by next Thursday. Thank you in advance for taking time to complete this survey! We’re working on making things better and better.

My best regards, Julie Ales, Principal



Volunteer Opportunities in the school Library!

Dear Parents,

If you enjoy cataloging, and can assist young students in their search for books, please consider volunteering in our library. We need help with book shelving, and with Kindergarten and First Grade students who visit the library.

Your help is especially needed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at lunch (11:45am-12:30pm).
We also need you on Wednesday and Friday mornings before recess (8:30am-9:45am).

If you can help, we would love to hear from you! Email Mrs. Lim at lim_jean@cusdschools.org, or call (408) 973-8191 extension 150.
Thank you,

Jean Lim @ the library.

Curriculum:

Language Arts

We have started the year by assessing students' needs in the areas of handwriting, grammar, and general reading and writing areas. Now, it's time to dive in whole-heartedly to these subjects! We've already begun our review and practice of grammatical concepts, starting with parts of speech. Identifying words by type is critical to understanding their usage in text. Handwriting practice (in cursive) is also in place for those that need review or consistent form. Today, our spelling program began with the introduction of our first word list and the homework requirements for the week. There will be other activities during the week, including an ending dictation test on Friday for spelling competence. Finally, we will start a unit based around our core literature book Stone Fox this week. We will be working on our reading comprehension, use of personification in writing, vocabulary development, and responding to literature in written and other creative ways during this unit. Stone Fox is a gripping story, so don't hesitate to ask your student what he or she has read in the novel during the week!

Math

In 4th grade math, we began the year by teaching elements of thorough problem-solving: restating the problem, noting key words that indicate problem-solving methods, solving the problem by outlining the steps taken, and explaining how you know that a problem-solving method is appropriate (or makes sense.) We also played with numbers in game situations, practiced sorting based on clues, and even did math-related art in the form of tesselations! Now, we are in the midst of Chapters 1 and 2 of our text, which concern themselves with large numbers, place value, comparing and ordering numbers, and rounding of numbers to designated place values. So far, our students seem to be able to apply their background knowledge in these areas to the slightly more advanced scenarios given in 4th grade- bravo! We will have a test on their understanding of Chapter 1 and 2 material on Thursday of this week. The test will be in a multiple-choice format.

In 5th grade math, we've begun the year strengthening our number theory. We have looked at some patterns in number series and reviewed prime and composite numbers. We've learned to find the prime factorization of numbers and a beginning understanding of exponents has been introduced. We are currently mastering the skill of finding the greatest common factors of large numbers. Our next unit is fractions. In this unit mixed numbers will be reviewed and we will work with finding equivalent fractions and putting fractions in simplest form. We will compare fractions and develop an understanding of how fractions, decimals, and percents are related. In addition to using our text book, we will use additional resources from literature, and mathematics problem solving books. Students will also be solving Problems of the Week throughout the year.

Social Studies

"A History of US!" This simple phrase can be interpreted as "A history of the United States" or " A history of "us", the people of the United States. When we study history this year, we are talking about both meanings! As we travel through time, we will be looking at historical events in this country and events that occurred in other parts of the world, which have had an effect on this country. We will also be talking about history in the context of how it relates to all of us, as citizens or people currently living in this country. Throughout the year, we will also be memorizing the fifty states, their locations and their capitals. The students have had their first test and will be bringing their test home for a parent signature this week. Please remember to encourage and assist your child when studying for tests. Studying is a new skill for many students this year, and some students really do not have an understanding of what it means to study or how to study for a test.

Science

Everyone wants to fly, right? Well, that's how we started our year- we flew paper airplanes as the basis for discussions of the scientific method and the scientific approach in inquiry! Based on 3 different flight tests, our classes were able to participate in experiments that demonstrated increasing levels of pragmatic scientific thinking. We learned that opinion is NOT the type of data that scientists want, for example. We also learned the importance of limiting variables and defining what is to be tested. Finally, we had a short test last Thursday that allowed students to revisit these three tests (on paper) and make statements about the scientific elements of particular flights, the differences between flights, and the improvements made to the scientific method during the later flights. Results will be coming back soon, but students in their class conversations definitely indicated that they understood the approach and real scientist, like themselves, would take!

Starting today, we begin one of our major science units, "The Water Planet." This unit incorporates the study of astronomy along with the study of our atmospheric environment. First, we look at the solar system and the planets, then we start to narrow our focus to our own planet, Earth. During the course of the unit, we will have numerous experimental papers to be completed during our investigations, as well as "Response" situations and investigation assessments to give kids a chance to demonstrate their understanding of the material. Of course, there will be reading to supplement our hands-on work, so check your students homework sheet for required reading or questions related to in-class reading. It's going to be an exciting trimester for us- we're going into space and back!

Calendar of Events:

Monday, Aug. 24 First Weekly Reminder of the Year!

Tuesday, Aug. 25 -Parent/Principal Exchange- 8:15am
-Parent Volunteer Training- 11:00am

Wednesday, Aug. 26 PSCO Meeting- 6:30pm

Thursday, Aug. 27 -Individual school pictures taken
-4th grade math test, Chapters 1 & 2 (multiple choice format)

Friday, Aug. 28 Running Club for students/staff/interested parents- 11:45am

Monday, Sept. 7 LABOR DAY- no school!


MYSTERY STATE CLUES:

For those of you not already familiar with our Weekly Reminders, each week we have a special "Clues" problem for our students to solve! Have your son or daughter read the clues below and answer the question; they can e-mail us with their answer or be prepared to respond at school the next day. Good luck to all!

According to the latest census data, this state's population of about 4.4 million ranks it the 23rd largest state in the United States.
Workers in this state built the rocket that carried the first people to walk on the moon.
The square dance is this state's official American folk dance.
This state was the home state of Helen Keller.


Which state is it?



Sincerely,

Mr. Roels and Miss Scourkes
Rooms 20 & 21
Rockhopper Village
Portal School